St John's Cathedral (Brisbane)

St John's Cathedral (Brisbane)

St John's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral of Brisbane and the metropolitan cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of Queensland, Australia. The cathedral is situated on the outskirts of the city centre and is the successor to an earlier pro-cathedral on William Street in the heart of the central business district which was predated by All Saints Wickham Terrace (1862), the oldest Anglican church in Brisbane.

The cathedral is the centre for big diocesan events such as the ordinations of priests and deacons which attract large congregations; a parish church catering for a diverse congregation of worshippers from around the city of Brisbane; a major centre for the arts and music with its own orchestra, the Camerata of St John’s, which holds several concerts in the cathedral each year; and an international centre of pilgrimage attracting over 20,000 visitors annually from around the world.

There is a choir of men and boys who sing the traditional Anglican repertoire as well as more adventurous fare. The cathedral also possesses a four manual pipe organ, the largest cathedral organ in Australia, which hosts many recitalists from across the world: Pearson's design (and stone-vaulting) creates a five-second reverberation making organ-music particularly resonant.

St John's Cathedral is unique in Australia as the completion of the building design was achieved through collaboration between clergy, stonemasons and architects over a period of almost 100 years, as with Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals in the Middle Ages and, more recently, 20th century cathedrals such as Liverpool Cathedral in England, St John the Divine in New York and Washington National Cathedral in Washington DC. It was also the only Victorian Gothic cathedral under construction in Australia.